Shany: Compliance with Decisions of International Courts as Indicative of Their Effectiveness: A Goal-Based Analysis

Yuval Shany (Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem - Law) has posted Compliance with Decisions of International Courts as Indicative of Their Effectiveness: A Goal-Based Analysis. Here's the abstract:

The paper, which is part of the author’s broader work in the field of assessing the effectiveness of international courts, seeks to ascertain the manner in which compliance with the remedies provided by a number of international courts is indicative of their goal-attainment. In doing so, it revisits certain conventional assumptions about the relationship between rates of compliance with judicial remedies (remedy compliance) and international Court effectiveness. Using as case studies the changing remedy design policies of the European Court of Human Rights and two recent ICJ cases, I argue that (a) correlation between state practice and judicial remedies tells us little about the impact that courts actually have. For example, ‘low aiming’ courts (issuing remedies entailing limited compliance costs and/or insignificant changes in state practice) are expected to generate what appear to be higher compliance rates, but would not be necessarily more effective; (b) remedy compliance is only meaningful from an effectiveness viewpoint, if it is discussed in the context of goal attainment – that is, the degree in which the judgment, any remedies ordered thereby and compliance therewith, contribute to promoting primary norm compliance, resolving disputes, supporting and legitimizing international norms and institutions, etc. Hence, compliance rates are in themselves a poor proxy for judicial effectiveness.